#false certainty

“Religion is dangerous because it allows human beings who don’t have all the answers to think they do.”

It gives definitive answers, sorts all trans people into whether or not their transition is going to be in their best interests

“Why should you believe in something for which there is no reason to believe? Where it becomes positively dangerous is if you start fighting with somebody else who has a different faith from yours and each of you is equally convinced that you are right and the other one is wrong. And precisely because it appeals only to faith, and not evidence, there is no way you could settle the argument other than killing each other. Whereas, if you disagree, as two scientists disagree, two scientists can sit down together, look at the evidence, and say, "Oh, I was wrong. I overlooked that bit of evidence" or, "Here's a new bit of evidence just come in which shows that my previous theory was wrong." Scientists, at least in principle, will come to an agreement when all of the evidence is in. But that's not what faith-based people do. They say, "I know I'm right. End of story." That's dangerous.”

"Belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence."

“It's not so much religion per se, it's false certainty that worries me, and religion just has more than its fair share of false certainty or dogmatism. I'm really concerned when I see people pretending to know things they clearly cannot know.”

Just Because the Memory is False, it Doesn’t Mean it’s Not Real

I have a distinct memory from my very early childhood, of watching ‘Tom Brown’s Schooldays’ on television at home. I remember finding the film disturbing for its scenes of bullying and institutionalised violence. But there was another, rather dramatic scene that stuck in my memory. It was my recollection that Tom Brown’s father was a master shipbuilder, and was supervising the manufacture of a…

The Tyranny of Labels in Video

This video brilliantly illustrates everything I have been obsessing about with my emphasis on “distinction-drawing” and actually everything I’ve been trying to say for the past five years on this blog.  If we live our life in the tyranny of the narrowly defined world our ego has carved out for us, individually and collectively, we…